5, and in great measure based on
it, a number of English translations had appeared, the most
authoritative in Shakspeare's time being perhaps the "Bishops' Bible",
printed under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth in 1568, and edited by
the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Geneva Bible of 1560, the first entire Bible in English in which
the division into chapters and verses was carried out, had, however,
the widest dissemination in Shakespeare's time, and a careful study of
passages in his works referable to Biblical texts appears to prove
that this version was the one with which he was most familiar. His
plays testify to his close knowledge of the Scriptures, although no
writer is less fettered by purely doctrinal considerations. The
Geneva Bible went through no less than sixty editions in Queen
Elizabeth's reign, and even after the issue of the "Authorized
Version" in 1611 it competed successfully with this for a time.

That Shakespeare may have seen Philemon Holland's (1552-1637)
excellent translation of Pliny is nowise unlikely. A notable passage
in his _Othello_ seems in any case to indicate that it was suggested
by Pliny's words (Bk. II, chap. 97, in Holland's version):

And the sea Pontus evermore floweth and runneth out into
Propontic, but the sea never retireth backe againe within
Pontus.

Othello replies thus to Iago's conjecture that he may change his mind
(Act iii, sc. 3):

Never, Iago. Like to the Pontic sea,
Whose icy current and compulsive course
Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on
To the Propontic and the Hellespont,
Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace,
Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love.
First Folio, "Tragedies", p. 326, col. B, lines 34-39.

There is, however, no trace of any familiarity on Shakespeare's part
with the precious stone lore of the Roman encyclopaedist, either from
the Latin text of his great "Historia Naturalis", or from the
translation published by Holland in 1601. This translator, who
Englished many of the chief Latin and Greek authors, Suetonius, Livy,
Ammianus Marcellinus, Plutarch's "Morals" and other works, was
pronounced by Fuller, in his "Worthies", to be "translator general in
his age", adding that "these books alone of his turning into English
will make a country gentleman a competent library". For his Ammianus
Marcellinus the Council of Coventry, his place of residence, paid